Sri Lanka look for winning finale

On a sluggish surface at Stadium Australia, even a career best knock of 90 from David Warner could not stop the hosts from being steamrolled by Sri Lanka with a fair margin. The two teams now move across to the majestic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) for the tour finale. The visitors backed up their No. 1 billing with a dominant performance at Stadium Australia and a similar effort tomorrow will see them leave the Aussie shores with some silverware for their efforts over the past seven weeks.

In the post innings interview during the Sydney game, Adam Voges hinted that Warner was playing on a different stripe when compared to the remaining Aussie batsmen. Nuwan Kulasekara and Lasith Malinga continued to be frugal with the new ball while posing several questions during the death overs. This allowed Angelo Mathews to use up his lesser options well in the middle overs, a strategy which bore fruit as the match went on.

A modest chase of 138 was not going to give the Lankan camp much jitters but they would have been thrilled to watch young Kushal Perera weave his magic. Without seeming to hit one ball in anger, the youngster who had impressed in the ODI series as well gave several reasons for the team management to believe that the future is in safe hands after the old guard signs off. Tillakaratne Dilshan was struck on his face by a bouncer from Ben Laughlin, and the team phyiso has insisted that he will be assessed once again before a final call is taken regarding his participation in the 2nd T20I. Barring that, the Lankan line up looks confident with every top-order batsman looking in decent touch. If the top-order has finesse, the middle and the lower order are filled with destructive hitters, ideally suited for this format of the game.

Team News:

Australia have named a 12 man squad for the two T20Is and James Faulkner was the 12th match for the Sydney match. Ben Laughlin was taken for runs on his debut and might sit this one out.

Akila Dananjaya has been a part of the ODI and T20I leg of the tour, but he has done nothing more than warming benches. Will he be chosen ahead of Ajanta Mendis for the final match?

Quotes:

The Twenty20 stuff, we've just got to be ahead of the game. Whether it be lap-shots, reverse-sweeps, backing away, charging, all those sorts of things - Glenn Maxwell wants Australia to be aggressive.

He took a nasty blow but still wanted to carry on. He's pretty keen. He loves this format of the game and he really wants to get on and play - Sri Lankan coach, Graham Ford insists that Tillakaratne Dilshan is keen on playing the 2nd match.